Pork Tornado, a musical collective featuring Phish drummer Jon Fishman reunited for the first time in nearly a decade on Sunday, in Essex, Vermont. The reunion took place on The Green At The Essex Experience as part of Pork Tornado’s original saxophonist Joe Moore’s Cancer Benefit All-Day Music Festival.

The festival also featured performances by Nobby Reed Project, The Spiders, Blues For Breakfast and the Joe Moore Band featuring special guest Martin Guigui and Left Eye Jump.

Pork Tornado originally came together in 1997 with Fishman, Moore, Phil Abair (keyboards), Dan Archer (guitar) and Aaron Hersey (bass). During the performance Dave “The Truth” Grippo handled saxophone, as Moore was diagnosed with cancer back in September of 2021 and has since endured additional medical issues since. Despite his absence during the performance, the musical excellence shared on stage served as a testament to his career which saw many collaborations with iconic musicians from Stevie Wonder to Wilson Pickett to The Staple singers.

Pork Tornado kicked their set up with “Move With You” which flowed into “Blue Skies” which ran for nearly 30 minutes and featured teases of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone From The Sun” and “Streets Of Cairo.” Both “Move With You” and “Blue Skies” were featured on Pork Tornado’s self-titled 2002 LP. The group closed their first set since 2013, with a cover of The Slickers Johnny Too Bad.”

Learn more and donate to Moore’s benefit here.